LAS VEGAS (AP) — Malachi Flynn scored all of his 28 points after halftime to lead San Diego State past Iowa 83-73 as the Aztecs rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit in Las Vegas Invitational championship game on Friday night.

Flynn, the tournament’s MVP, also had five rebounds and four assists while going 9 of 9 from the free-throw line.

Jordan Schakel and Yanni Wetzell each had 14 points for the Aztecs (8-0) — their best start since 2010-11, when they were also was 8-0.

CJ Fredrick led Iowa (5-2) with 16 points. Connor McCaffery added 15 and Joe Toussaint had 13. Luka Garza, who is averaging over 20 points per game, had nine points on 3-for-8 shooting and eight rebounds.

San Diego State took the lead for good on Wetzell layup with 14:01 left after trailing by 16 with 3:05 remaining until halftime.

After the Aztecs led for most of the early portions of the first half, Iowa took the lead on a five-point possession, 20-17, after free throws by Toussaint and Garza. That also started a 22-4 run building Iowa’s largest lead at 37-21, before leading 41-32 at halftime.

This was the first meeting between the teams.

The Hawkeyes play at Syracuse on Tuesday.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Faced with its first true test of the season, No. 12 Texas Tech fell short and lost a top player to injury.

Jordan Bohannon had 20 points and six assists, Luka Garza added 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Iowa held off the Red Raiders 72-61 on Thursday at the Las Vegas Invitational.

The Hawkeyes (5-1) will play in the championship game Friday night against San Diego State.

“I’m very proud of our defensive effort,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “We recognized the quality of our opponent. Texas Tech is a talented team, and incredibly well-coached. Anything short of that, we would have been carved up.”

Chris Clarke had 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Texas Tech (5-1), which lost Big 12 leading scorer Jahmi’us Ramsey to a leg injury with 10:06 to play. He finished with seven points.

After the game, coach Chris Beard was unsure of Ramsey’s status for Friday’s consolation game against Creighton.

Joe Wieskamp had 16 points and six rebounds for the Hawkeyes, and CJ Fredrick scored 10. His 3-pointer off a broken play as the shot clock expired put Iowa ahead 64-59 with 1:29 left. He followed that up with two free throws with 1:07 remaining to just about put it away.

UP NEXT

Iowa: Plays for the Las Vegas Invitational title Friday against San Diego State. Pregame is set for 6:00pm, tip at 7:00pm. We plan on having coverage on KJAN following coverage of the football game.

Texas Tech: Also plays Friday vs. Creighton.

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton brought plenty of flair at the helm of Iowa State’s attack, from flashing a hand sign to his ear like he was talking on the phone to another as though he was looking through binoculars after a nifty opencourt pass.

Of course, it was easy for the Cyclones to enjoy Thursday considering they were hitting from outside, playing in a flow and rolling to a huge scoring output.

Haliburton came within an assist of a triple-double while Iowa State posted a record scoring output for the Battle 4 Atlantis by beating Alabama 104-89 on Thursday.

“It’s great to make some shots,” Iowa State coach Steve Prohm quipped.

Indeed, the offensive numbers looked great for the Cyclones (4-2), who shook free of their 3-point shooting struggles and fed off the flair of their sophomore point guard.

Haliburton finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists while Rasir Bolton added 22 points.

Bolton, a Penn State transfer who was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA, entered the game shooting just 2 of 20 from 3-point range to mirror those troubles.

But he made 5 of 7 on Thursday, while Iowa State made 15 of 29 shots from behind the arc in easily its best totals for made 3s and 3-point percentage this season.

“It feels like I’m back to normal,” Bolton said.

John Petty Jr. had 34 points and six 3-pointers to lead Alabama (2-4), posting the No. 2 point total in the tournament’s nine-year history. But the Crimson Tide did little to keep the Cyclones offense in check.

Iowa State’s 104 points broke the previous tournament record of 102 points by Michigan against Charlotte in November 2015.

UP NEXT

Alabama: The Crimson Tide will play in Friday’s seventh-place game against Southern Miss.

Iowa State: The Cyclones will play in Friday’s fifth-place game against No. 13 Seton Hall.